Video: Congressman sobs in testimony during King hearings

posted at 12:15 pm on March 10, 2011 by Ed Morrissey

There is little doubt that Mohammed Salman Hamdani died a hero on 9/11. The Pakistani-born American, just 23 years old, tried rescuing people from the World Trade Center when the buildings collapsed, killing him as well as almost 2800 others in the worst terrorist attack on American soil. Hamdani had planned a life of service to his community, working as a paramedic and then as a cadet for the New York Police Department. His heroic death was significant enough to get an explicit mention in the USA Patriot Act in its condemnation of bigotry against Arabs and Muslims.

Rep. Keith Ellison, one of two Muslim members of Congress, broke down in tears while delivering his testimony in defense of the Muslim community during a House Committee on Homeland Security hearing Thursday. …

“His life should not be identified as just a member of an ethnic group or just a member of a religion, but an American who gave everything for his fellow Americans,” he said.

The hearing, officially titled “The extent of radicalization in the American Muslim community and that community’s response,” were initiated by committee chairman New York Republican Rep. Pete King and have been criticized as a “witch hunt” in the days leading up to the meeting. King defended the hearings, saying that “to back down would be a craven surrender to political correctness.”

The problem with describing these as “witch hunts” is that there were no actual witches to be found. In this case, we’ve not only been repeatedly attacked by radical Islamists from abroad, but also from within as well. Anwar al-Awlaki has American citizenship, for instance, and has become one of the most dangerous terrorist leaders in the world. He inspired Major Nidal Hasan’s massacre at Fort Hood, Faisal Shahzad’s attempt to bomb Times Square, just to name two recent plots, and may have had a hand in the Zazi plot as well.

King and others in this hearing have gone out of their way to repeat that they are looking into radical Islam as a major problem in home-grown terrorism. Even that won’t satisfy Ellison, who seems determined to shout (or sob) down any attempt to talk about the nature of radical Islam and the threat to national security it represents as somehow an attack on all Muslims. Ruth Marcus isn’t fooled:

To listen to King’s critics, you would think he was urging modern-day internment camps for Muslim Americans. In a letter to King on Monday, more than 50 progressive groups slammed him for “singling out a particular community for examination in what appears to be little more than a political show-trial.” …

At the same time, it is a parody of political correctness to argue that a hearing on domestic terrorism cannot focus solely on the Muslim community to be acceptable.

Neither is Peter Wehner, who rebuts an unusually silly attack by Peter Beinart in his latest column:

Political Islam is a real and lethal phenomenon. Those who are carrying out attacks, like Army Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the Fort Hood killer, and Faisal Shahzad, who was charged in the attempted bombing in Times Square, are doing so in the name of Islam. The problem therefore inherently defines itself in religious terms, making it qualitatively different from the examples Beinart uses. There is nothing analogous to Islamism in Christianity or Judaism right now. Now you can believe, as I do, that al-Qaeda’s interpretation of Islam is perverted and corrupting — but to deny the role political Islam plays in terrorism is delusional. …

Even Attorney General Eric Holder said in an interview that the alarming rise in the number of Americans who are eager to kill their fellow citizens “is one of the things that keeps me up at night. The threat has changed from simply worrying about foreigners coming here, to worrying about people in the United States, American citizens — raised here, born here, and who for whatever reason, have decided that they are going to become radicalized and take up arms against the nation in which they were born.”

So are we supposed to pretend that terrorist attacks on Americans aren’t rooted in a particular strand of Islam?

And is Congress supposed to ignore the threat that Holder and Janet Napolitano have reported to them simply because it makes Keith Ellison cry? Let’s not forget that American heroes like Mohammed Salman Hamdani died because we didn’t take the threat of radical Islam abroad more seriously. Let’s not continue to make the same mistake about radical Islam here at home.

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

Comments

Not really. Not for me. It was 19 Saudis that claimed responsibility, had the means, the method, and the desire and said so in long elaborate letters explaining why they were doping this. I’m not going to take the fatalities for 9/11 off the list of victims of Islamic terrorism.

You’re joking right – you want me to prove that statements literally recycled from the Protocols of the Elders of Zion aren’t legitimate when stipmined and applied to another group of outsiders that people find suspicious feel threatened by?

dieudonne on March 10, 2011 at 4:01 PM

you do know that David Pryce-Jones is an eminent author, and works at the National review…so yes I think you need to back up the BS you post.

Assignments included Six Day War of 1967, Yom Kippur war of 1973, covering the rise of the PLO; Soviet Union, especially in Central Asia; a series on the Balkans; literary profiles including Auden, Graves, Bellow, Wilfred Thesiger, Jean-Francois Revel.

Regular or occasional contributor to The Daily Telegraph, The Times, The Financial Times, Spectator, Times Literary Supplement, Wall Street Journal, The New Republic etc

I watched Rep Ellison (D) who wears the banner of the “only Muslim Congressman” wrap himself in the bloody shirt of a fallen 9-11 First Responder who happened to be Muslim. Ellison frothed himself into a weepy outraged mess by reciting this young man’s life, and how dare this panel impugn his memory by suggesting that Muslims can’t be patriotic Americans, yadda, yadda. It was disgusting, totally outrageous. I rather think that by trying to SHUT down discussion and reflection on this rather obviously troubling issue, ELLISON is the one that maligns that man’s memory, who by all accounts saw himself as an American first, and Muslim second. Ellison? Not so much, it’s always the other way around it seems.

A Democrat from Illinois babbled about justice and racism, yadda, yadda. He also praised Farrakhan for his “enthralling” speeches!?!? Two Democrats from California (Barbara Lee and Richardson) went on ad nauseum about the racism of the panel, blah, blah. Broken record — isn’t the race card maxed out yet? And then a Democrat from Louisiana yawped about Rascism and why the panel sucks…and that the panel should cover the “rainbow and spectrum” of radical activity in America…oh, also that the hearing itself is causing radicalism…useless poseurs the lot of them. A disgusting anti-intellectual display.

There was a really interesting answer from Mr. Bihi on who is vulnerable to radicalization:

1. Almost all radicalized youth come from single mother homes
2. The kids are intelligent, underachievers
3. They are “native” born and have fewer problems going abroad for training and coming back home
4. They are “groomed” from their local Mosque and recruiters looking for vulnerable kids
5. The last steps are the online internet training and videos to reinforce the grooming and then sponsoring them into a terrorist training or action program

this strategic pattern of demands is part of an insidious, 1,400-year-old proscription for Muslims

Any conspiracy that has been given the vast wealth of multiple historical empires, billions of followers throughout history, and one thousand and four hundred years to accomplish it’s goals and still hasn’t isn’t to be taken seriously.

I have not rread the book – I don’t know if you are quoting him or quoting him quoting others but it really doesn’t matter – lots of otherwise credible and highly respected intellects believed in the Protocols as well. The claims are the same – the only thing that appears to have changed is the target.

I have not rread the book – I don’t know if you are quoting him or quoting him quoting others but it really doesn’t matter – lots of otherwise credible and highly respected intellects believed in the Protocols as well. The claims are the same – the only thing that appears to have changed is the target.

dieudonne on March 10, 2011 at 4:12 PM

in other words you’re slandering him. no surprise…anything to advance your agenda…

Any conspiracy that has been given the vast wealth of multiple historical empires, billions of followers throughout history, and one thousand and four hundred years to accomplish it’s goals and still hasn’t isn’t to be taken seriously.

dieudonne on March 10, 2011 at 4:10 PM

this is just nuts. they’ve killed untold millions over those years…and are the biggest threat to freedom ever known. christians in europe, when they had guts, fought them for a millenia.

its VERY serious.

don’t worry, the end-game is within sight…their Mahdi will arise…christians know him as the anti-christ….

Getting back to the coordinated attacks against Peter King coming from your pals on the Left, some other Inconvenient Truths to ponder.

1. The meme first got started last October by King’s political opponent, Howard Kudler, and is simply being recycled now. Gee, wonder what Howie’s doing now? King killed him in the election, 72% to 28%.

Howard Kudler who is opposing Congressman Peter King, on Long Island, has launched an astonishing attack on King calling him a terrorist collaborator because of his links with Sinn Féin.

Kudler has about as much chance as the local dogcatcher has of taking King’s seat and this last second broadside is a pathetic attempt to blacken King.

It is a classic low blow, expressed without any knowledge whatever of King’s significant role in bringing Sinn Féin to the negotiating table, and an attempt to smear him with the terrorist label.

Speaking of which, Niall O’Dowd notes:

Peter King for well over two decades was the only significant American political figure to deal with Sinn Féin and to understand the complexity of the situation in Northern Ireland.

King played an absolutely huge role in getting the Clinton White House involved in the Irish peace negotiations and he never shirked the hard task of making Sinn Féin completely aware of what America needed from them.

Far from encouraging terrorism King helped end Europe’s longest war of the twentieth century and can stand up and be very proud of his achievement.

And as King himself said yesterday on C-BS:

“President Barack Obama offered me the position of ambassador to Ireland,” King said on CBS’s Early Show, also referring to encouragement from former President Bill Clinton and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair. “If they thought in any way that any of my actions were wrong, I doubt the president of the United States would have offered me the position of ambassador to Ireland.

“What I did was take an active role,” he said. “I was absolutely essential in bringing about that peace process. Hundreds, maybe thousands of people are alive today in Northern Ireland because of my efforts.”

2. There is also this interesting angle:

King’s IRA support might even give him unique insights: The IRA isn’t al Qaeda, says Ben Smith at Politico, but it did have plenty of “connections in the Arab and Muslim world.” Indeed, Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi supplied explosives to the group, and the Palestine Liberation Organization worked with them for awhile. Couldn’t this experience give King a better insight into “the difference between violent nationalist resistance and transnational terror groups”?

3. And this one:

Back when King made his comments, says Jammie Wearing Fool at his blog, a lot of people viewed the IRA “not as a terrorist group, but as those fighting for independence from Britain.” Even liberals like Ted Kennedy gave them support. But their violence, and support for “radical leftists”, turned many Irish-Americans off, and the events of 9/11 made us view terrorism in a different way

In fact it was the Irish reaction after 9/11 that turned King against the IRA.

Funny how you folks never bring that up, that he stopped supporting their cause. That’s because it doesn’t fit the meme you’re pushing.

A rather disturbing event occurred in a Minnesota library last Sunday: Freshman Congressman Keith Ellison (D-Minnesota) compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler, while implying that the White House was involved in the World Trade Center attacks on 9/11.

Moslems faced the same threat in early days of their religion and came up against the same question – What to do with those people that denied faith to avoid death? Islam said that it was understandable and codified what circumstances would permit apostacy under Taqiyya.

Before Mormons were widely accepted in the US, they had to discontinue practices such as bigamy which were incompatible with our societal norms. The responsible Mormons understood this, and split from the dysfunctional fundamentalists in their midst to create a “Reformed” faith which was compatible with our societal norms and eliminated the conflicts.

Now the Muslims aren’t just violating a few societal taboos, they are teaching lying, cheating, and murder of those who are not of their faith, and the destruction of our government and our laws. A few of them use these teachings to justify actual destruction and murder of our citizens, so they cannot be ignored under some kind of “live and let live” doctrine.

It is not unreasonable to require responsible Muslims to split from their dysfunctional fundamentalists and create a “Reformed” version of their religion which can coexist with our society, our laws, our government, and our culture.

Muslims can’t claim the right to destroy us and our law and simultaneously demand “equal treatment under the law.”

The hearings are focused on Islam because Islam is the world’s most violently sexist, intolerant and reactionary major religion and 99% of religiously-motivated terror attacks on US soil are perped by Muslims.

Perky Katie led with this story tonight. Typical DNC Media spin. The first report spent as much time on bashing King as on covering the hearing itself.

BTW, the Democrats I saw clips of making statements and asking questions for the most part behaved disgracefully. I could have predicted that before this even began, but waited to see it confirmed before shooting my mouth off.

So, let me get this right….we can’t associate Muslims/Islam with Terrorism, but it is perfectly OK to associate me with Slave Owners. I think that there is a more current and direct link with Muslims to terrorist acts and there is to most whites to slavery… Hell, there is a more direct and more recent link to Muslims and Slavery than to most living whites. We have to stop letting them shine us on!

I expect all the left to make fun of ellison and call him a cry baby. Like they do against Glenn.
And for all the left that want this religion to take over this western world, they and their fellow travellers would be the first to have their heads cut off…… And especially the women!

How ’bout muslims in America, and around the world, point out those within their mosques/communities who are actively recruiting jihadists and advocating/preaching hatred and attacks on civilians? Until that happens…

I expect all the left to make fun of ellison and call him a cry baby. Like they do against Glenn.
And for all the left that want this religion to take over this western world, they and their fellow travellers would be the first to have their heads cut off…… And especially the women!

WASHINGTON — Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), the first Muslim-American elected to Congress, broke into tears Thursday during a hearing investigating possible radicalization of Muslim-Americans, telling the House Homeland Security Committee the inquiry was “the very heart of scapegoating.”

“We’ve seen the consequences of anti-Muslim hate,” Ellison testified. “The best defense against extreme ideologies is social inclusion and civic engagement. … I fear these hearings may undermine our efforts in this direction.”

Ellison became emotional while recounting the story of Mohammed Salman Hamdani, a 23-year-old Muslim-American firefighter who died while saving others during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Hamdani, whose mother was in the audience, was castigated for his religion after his death, with some wondering whether he had been allied with the attackers, Ellison said.

“He should not be remembered as a Muslim, but as an American who gave everything for his country,” Ellison said.

…If we take out 9/11, Ft. Hood, the D.C. Sniper and the Arkansas Recruiting Center…
Vera on March 10, 2011 at 4:34 PM

Muslims are not responsible for 9/11, but let’s go ahead and include your other events:

Fort hood: 13
Arkansas Recruiting Center: 1
D.C. Sniper: 10

You have added 5 more years to the range. We are now looking at a 30 year span instead of 25. Instead of 12 deaths over 25 years, we now have 36 deaths over 30 years. Peanuts kill about 120 Americans every year. Over 30 years, this is 3,600 people.

3,600 > 36

As I said, peanuts kill more Americans than Muslim terrorists. Actually, even if you include 9/11, this is still true.

This sob story, while it illustrates what some nominal Muslims are capable of, is irrelevant to the purpose of the hearings, which is not to claim that there can be no good citizens who call themselves Muslims – they can be, at least if they are not too true to their extremely intolerant supremacist totalitarian faith.

First of all I think this hero would hardly be considered a good Muslim by Muslims scholars:Singing Handel’s Messiah at Christmas!!?This is blasphemy! Apostasy!
And I think he would be strung up in short other in certain Muslim countries – and even in those whose laws would have allowed him to live, his neighbor could do him in (Islam, like examples from Muhammad’s life shows, is not big on due process). And I doubt Star Wars is recommended viewing for Muslim kids, unless maybe the “dark side” is identified as where the infidels live.

Remember, Islam, like its alleged perfect example of manhood, Muhammad, strongly disapproves of fine Music (military marches or possibly belly dancing accompaniments to help you get horny excepted):

Hadith Qudsi 19:5: “The Prophet said that Allah commanded him to destroy all the musical instruments, idols, crosses and all the trappings of ignorance.”

Muhammad also said:
(1) “Allah Mighty and Majestic sent me as a guidance and mercy to believers and commanded me to do away with musical instruments, flutes, strings, crucifixes, and the affair of the pre-Islamic period of ignorance.”

(2) “On the Day of Resurrection, Allah will pour molten lead into the ears of whoever sits listening to a songstress.”

(3) “Song makes hypocrisy grow in the heart as water does herbage.”

(4) “This community will experience the swallowing up of some people by the earth, metamorphosis of some into animals, and being rained upon with stones.” Someone asked, “When will this be, O Messenger of Allah?” and he said, “When songstresses and musical instruments appear and wine is held to be lawful.”

Yep, you probably noticed the absence choral works in Mosques or musicals written by Muslims.

IN other words, the only thing Keith Ellison sob story might be said to illustrate is that some Muslims can be heroic true citizens if they are lousy at Islam, which by the way, forbids Muslims to have Christians or Jews for friends (Qu’ran 3:28).

As I said, peanuts kill more Americans than Muslim terrorists. Actually, even if you include 9/11, this is still true.

dave742 on March 11, 2011 at 8:31 AM
———
1
Your obnoxious little trolling aside, It’s absurd to suggest that terrorism is not a global threat. It’s just much much much smaller than the media and the right cry that it is.
2
That said, it is more absurd to paint over a billion people with the same brush, or pull some random % out of one’s ass and shriek OMG EVEN 1% – A NUMBER AS SMALL AS 1% – MEANS THERE ARE TEN FEKKING MILLION EXTREMISTS
3
King is a fu*king as*hole terrorist sympathizer and should be taken behind the wood shed for it. Not sure why the people of Long Island are so f*king stupid.
4
Hotair is dependably xenophobic, as usual

In fact, terrorism barely exists. You don’t have to be an obnoxious troll to have this view. Paul Craig Roberts, who was assistant secretary of the Treasury under Reagan and also an editor at the Wall Street Journal says the same thing:

In fact, terrorism barely exists. You don’t have to be an obnoxious troll to have this view. Paul Craig Roberts, who was assistant secretary of the Treasury under Reagan and also an editor at the Wall Street Journal says the same thing:

“The very fact that the FBI has to orchestrate fake terrorism proves the absence of real terrorists.”

There was at least one smart person in the Reagan WH.

dave742 on March 11, 2011 at 10:36 AM
——–

Saying terrorism barely exists is as fu*king stupid as saying nuclear strikes barely exist, I mean, come on, there were only two of them.

If it is such a big problem, why does the FBI have to fabricate incidents? (See the Roberts article for this angle). If there were 50 real terrorists in the US, they could shut down the country easily. Imagine 2 guys with machine guns spraying the crowd at Times Square on New Years Eve. They could shoot for 30 seconds from a building, walk away, and let the panic take care of the rest. More people would die than died on 9/11. Any idiot could make a pipe bomb surrounded by shrapnel. These would be going off in crowds daily if there were real terrorists. Why do you people think that terrorists sit around for decades thinking of some grand event that will shock the world? All terrorists would need to do is similar things to what I mentioned and to do it daily. It would not take many people willing to do this to cause complete mayhem. Look what happened in DC when a guy with a gun started shooting. Imagine 50 or 100 people doing this, and doing it better.

None of this happens. Why? Because terrorism does not exist. But you can sit there if you like and worry about all the terrorists out there planning some immense, complicated attack. I am not worried about it. I am more worried about getting hit by lightning or getting mauled by a pit bull.

It would take a few dozen people. That’s not many. It would take no organization – each person could act on his own. As I said, excluding 9/11, which was enacted by governments, Muslim terrorism resulted in 13 deaths over 25 years. So what. 18,000 people die every year from lack of health care (which Obama’s health care system will do nothing about). Maybe that is a bigger issue? This whole Muslim issue has nothing to do with terrorism. It has everything to do with demonizing a culture that Israel wants to take land from.

Lately Ellison has been making the standard Quran 5:32 distortion lie that Muslim like to sucker infidels with by leaving out the beginning of it. That’s the lie we’ve all heard about 5:32 saying that “Whoever kills a person, it would be as if he slew the whole people …” Even President Bush used it as number one useful idiot when he hosted a Ramadan dinner in 2005.

What is always left out by Muslims is the indication that this is addressed only to Jews. The part quoted is taken from the Talmud as if in mockery. Qur’an 5:32-33 is really warning the Jews to behave or else (5:33) they will be tortured and killed.

BTW The “There is no compulsion in religion” quote from the absurd Qur’an just means that infidel Christians or Jews won’t be automatically killed if they reject Islam, but they will have to then pay protection money not be killed and live as humiliated subjects per Qur’an 9:29.